I would describe my career trajectory as a winding path, with a few wonderful stops along the way.
My creative journey first started in music. I studied composition at The Juilliard School in New York and subsequently worked in music public relations. But my love affair with gardening began when I moved to a little cottage in upstate New York. This was my first “garden lab”, where I learned all about growing things in the ground and in containers. I moved a little farther north to Saratoga Springs, NY, where I parlayed my passion for gardening into a retail garden boutique, IvyVine Topiaries, which was discovered by magazine and book editors. Those connections led me to the next phase of my career.
An editor at Better Homes & Gardens’ book division saw my shop in a magazine article and hired me to create several projects for their gardening books. As it turns out, kismet intervened when I lost the lease on my shop. I took that as a sign that I should focus my creative efforts on producing and styling photo shoots for not only books, but also for the myriad of home & garden magazines at Meredith Publishing, one of the largest publishers in the United States.
For the next 20 years, I had the privilege to produce and style hundreds of photo shoots at homes and gardens throughout the Northeast and, after I moved to Dallas in 2014, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. I also met the most interesting people, including my future husband. I’ve worked with passionate home gardeners, garden designers, interior designers and, on a couple of occasions, captains of industry (who were some of the most down-to-earth and gracious people I’ve ever met).
After 20 years of producing photo shoots, I decided it was time to return to my gardening roots. Thus began the evolution of Garden Design Works. In 2019, my husband and I moved to Nevada where I reignited my passion for creating beautiful gardens and exterior living spaces (yes, it’s possible to create a water-wise garden paradise in the desert!) In 2023, we returned to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where I’m looking forward to creating more beautiful exterior spaces.
I like to say that, long after my Juilliard days, I’m still composing – but in a gardening medium instead of a musical one. I’m fortunate to be able to merge my enthusiasm for growing things and my design sense to help people transform their exterior spaces into peaceful sanctuaries that they never want to leave.